There are a couple of storms swirling at opposite ends of the Irish teakettle at present. On the one hand there is the anniversary of the 1916 Rising in Dublin coming up with the fear that Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Harry might be invited to get on down and enjoy the undoubted craic but might […]
March, 2014
You’d feel at home here, Jeremy
OK – first things first. As the pics above will testify, I did as promised take part in the Omagh Half-Marathon yesterday, and my thanks to all those big-hearted people who sponsored me for Trócaire : it’s one thing to talk about injustice, another to do something about it. If you haven’t put a couple […]
Last night at Queen’s
They could hardly have been more different. A couple of evenings ago, a group of Irishmen and women trooped into Buckingham Palace to bow and curtsey before Queen Elizabeth II, who asked them inane questions which thrilled them to the marrow of their bones. Just being in the Queen’s Palace was enough to make them […]
Is there a bucket in the house?
There are at least two possible reasons why the sight of the many Irish visiting Buckingham Palace the other evening make me want to heave. The first is that I’m a curmudgeonly,begrudging anti-Brit naysayer. The second is that the occasion was another example of Irish people colluding in a don’t-mention-the-problem situation. If it was […]
Justice under Alan Shatter: the wheels come off
Not content with squeezing the people of the south financially until the pips squeaked, the Fine Gael/Labour coalition have now revealed themselves as people who run a state where the guardians of the law and their boss are about as competent as Homer Simpson after a night in a brewery. Where to start? 1. The […]
Sic transit gloria Garda Commissioner
And so we say farewell to Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, the man who described whistleblowers from within the gardaí as “disgusting”. Two gardaí, Maurice McCabe and John Wilson, had alleged that the penalty points system was being abused – that is, those issued with them were having their licence wiped clean because they had […]
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION by Patrick Joseph Dorrian
Pictures at an exhibition (apologies to Mussorgsky) The building is a Carnegie Gift relic, a cherished community facility, the Falls Road Library shows not only books but art and other local history. So that’s where I found myself, on a wet afternoon wandering in, in wet foot steps, trailing to the notice boards, showing […]
Are you against violence to achieve political ends?
There’s a letter in today’s Irish Times which raises an interesting point. The Kerryman writing it wants to know the need of the southern state to have an army: “Why do we feel it necessary to ape our neighbours with a conventional standing army? Which of the European powers could we repel in the unlikely […]
Ed, Mary Lou and me
You may remember a few blogs back I compared the appearance of Gerry Adams on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show with that of Mary Lou McDonald last Friday. I thought she did very well – even-tempered, calm, good-humoured. I don’t think she did as stunningly well as some other commentators say she did but […]
‘Has Haass been?’ – by Randall Stephen Hall
This wee poem is a bit of a ranting ramble. But I’m sure it reflects how many of us feel here in Northern Ireland with regard to Richard Haass and his recent attempts to help us resolve our past, how to give voice to the many silent victims of the Troubles and our insatiable love […]